


A Love Letter to the Fandom

by jane_potter



Category: Thor (2011)
Genre: Embedded Images, Fuck Yeah Fanfic Flamingo, Gen, Macros, Meme, Meta, Pictures, Trans Character, Transgender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-22
Updated: 2011-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-26 10:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/282219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_potter/pseuds/jane_potter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A FuckYeahFanficFlamingo just for the Thor fandom, and a love letter from one trans* person to the fandom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Love Letter to the Fandom

Dear Thor (2011) fandom:

 

Here is a [macro just for you](http://fuckyeahfanficflamingo.tumblr.com/post/12903609404/brand-new-fandom).

 

 

 

 

Yes, weep. I have, and I probably will again. Do you know why?

 

Because the fanfiction that you produced so prolifically after this summer's Thor movie was the first literature-- not just fanfic, but literature-- that I have ever read which represented trans* people on a broad scale. Not just the odd story here and there, not with one trans* character tucked in the background.

 

Trans* characters as the protagonists. Trans* characters as the heroes, or as the starring (and utterly sympathetic) villains.

 

All because of Loki, that magnificent bastard.

 

But also because of Laufey. I think the sex-swap that the comics (and movie) writers pulled was the catalyst for all of your massive representation of characters outside the sex binary: the jotnar, whether you imagined them as intersexed or physically fluid or whatever other brilliant thing you all thought up.

 

And, dear fandom, you realised that a race of non-sex-binary characters would hardly conform to the gender binary.

 

And that's where you rocked it. That is where you embraced the challenge of writing about people like me.

 

Your adoration for Loki was what brought about trans* representation on a (comparatively) large scale:

 

You wrote about Loki experiencing gender dysphoria in a male Asgardian body rather than the intersexed jotunn body zie should have had. You wrote about Loki as a man in an intersexed body, as a woman in a male body, as a genderqueer person in both the male and female Asgardian bodies zie shifted into. You wrote about genderfluid Loki shape-shifting zir body to fit whichever gender identity zie had at the moment, man woman between or beyond.

 

You wrote about Loki suffering transphobia (and homophobia-- we shan't forget that, because intersectionality is a bitch). You wrote about Loki restricted by gender roles. You wrote about Loki challenging gender roles. You wrote about Loki overcoming gender dysphoria in ways that made me feel like _I could have the strength to do it too_. You wrote about Loki flagrantly defying anybody's damn conception of a binary or a gender role or what the fuck ever, because Loki is what Loki is and HE DOES WHAT HE WANTS, THOR.

You wrote about Thor failing to understand Loki. You wrote about Thor failing to support Loki, and about Thor fumbling and clumsily attempting to support Loki even though he still didn't understand, and about Thor supporting Loki so magnificently that I wept because I wanted someone like that in my life. You wrote about Loki getting help from unexpected sources, and about basic, profound human decency giving rise to acceptance and support for all people, even the supervillains.

 

Sometimes, I don't think you were aware you were writing this.

 

I've made comments to some authors and received responses to the effect that they had no idea they were writing Loki as a transgender person, or that they were doing it so accurately. But they did. Because they could reasonably imagine what it would be like to be trapped in the wrong body, to have a skin that fit wrong, even if they didn't realise they were describing gender dysphoria.

 

And the writers who actively chose to depict a trans* character, and did the research? Even better.

 

Because I've yet to see one of you who truly failed in depicting a trans* character, despite the huge potential for the whole fandom to sink into a pit of endless fail.

NOT. ONE.

 

And so I want to say thank you, and, in true Internet fashion, I do it with a macro of a bright pink flamingo.

 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

 

 

 

EDIT: When I have time, I plan to go through this post and insert appropriate links to all of the fics I mentioned. Some time that's not the week before finals start. ;)


End file.
